Today's Word "Earwig"
Published in Vocabulary
earwig \EER-wig\ (verb) - To annoy or attempt to influence by private talk
"Jericho earwigged the Web mogul at the software conference, asking him to take the lead in banning spyware advertising from the sites he hosted."
Earwigs are small insects that were once thought to crawl into the ears of sleeping people. This isn't true-earwigs prefer moist, dark places under leaves and rocks to human ears-but the superstition led people to name the insect "carwicga," Old English for "ear insect." Over time, people connected the idea of having an insect in one's ear to situations that involve whispering or speaking privately into someone's ear. The noun "earwig" came to also mean "a whispering busybody" (though this sense is now considered archaic), and the verb "earwig" evolved to refer to the acts of such meddlers.
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